Blog Archives

Every year, since I started this business, I write and publish an “annual report” for Fletcher Prince. When I look back, I realize David and I accomplished a lot. So here it is, our annual report: a great way to end the year on a positive note.

Fletcher Prince celebrates its sixth year in business. 2013 marked another year of delivering marketing and public relations services to clients and contractors, as well as community involvement, collaboration, and networking.

Client Work in 2013

Social media services and graphic design services were major project areas for us this year.

We worked with our existing clients Dominion Mechanical Construction, Keenan PR, and PRofessional Solutions, LLC. We also provided social media guidance to new clients Communications Ventures and Spark Media as well as graphic design services to Mopwater PR. Some of our interesting projects in 2013 included working on a 20th anniversary marketing campaign for PRofessional Solutions, LLC and creating a multi-million dollar client-garnering sales presentation for Dominion Mechanical Construction.

Community Involvement and Service

Conversations in Public Relations

As a service to the Washington, DC area professional communications community, Fletcher Prince continues to produce videos for the YouTube series “Conversations in Public Relations,” featuring interviews with local communicators and association leaders. The 113 videos have received more than 79,000 views on YouTube.

Social Media Week DC

Fletcher Prince was the first public relations agency in the Washington, DC area to offer sessions for Social Media Week DC, and we resumed our commitment to the area-wide event for the second year in mid-February 2013. With the addition of guest podcasting expert and friend Ray Ortega of The Podcasters’ Studio, we presented two free seminars in Falls Church to a packed room, one on getting started with podcasting and the other on blogging about your favorite interests. You can view these presentations, along with the full length videos, on Fletcher Prince’s account on Slideshare.

Network-and-Lunch Events

We continued to offer Network-and-Lunch events around the DC area, periodically. Special thanks go to Connie Rhind Robey and Leah Ibraheem for their ongoing support and organizing contributions! Make plans to attend our next event at Chef Geoff’s in Tysons Corner on Tuesday, January 28.

Fletcher Prince Marketing Efforts in 2013

We continue to be grateful to our supporters. Our Facebook Page Likes increased by seven and we gained 41 new Twitter followers. We also added our Social Media Week video presentations to our YouTube account.

The Fletcher Prince Blog is a labor of love and a big part of how we share our expertise and showcase our work. We surpassed 700 total blog posts in 2013. Despite our decreased blogging volume of only 38 new blog posts in 2013, we earned nearly 23,000 views in 2013, bringing our total views to just over 94,000. Our sincere thanks to guest bloggers Deborah Brody, Karen Hendricks, and Jay Morris for their contributions in 2013.

In Other News…

I attended the 2013 Washington PR Woman of the Year Awards as the guest of Fletcher Prince clients Kate Perrin and Melanie Jordan of PRofessional Solutions, LLC. I am so grateful to Kate and Melanie for their year-long support and friendship. Fletcher Prince had an ad in the program for the event.

Thank You for Making 2013 a Great Year!

David and I would like to thank our clients for their business and look forward to an exciting new year. I hope 2014 brings you much happiness and success. Happy New Year!

If you use social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter, for your business, nonprofit or agency, you may want to review these upcoming dates in 2014 to create engagement and marketing messages for your brand’s profiles.

You may even be inspired by these dates and themes to create blog, photo, or video content, or even a marketing campaign, depending on your audience and your needs. Have fun with it! For example, on National Cookie Day last year, we created a cookie version of the Fletcher Prince logo and posted the image online.

Tuning into what matters to your customers or constituents throughout the year is an important way to position your brand as accessible, personable, and caring.

Some tips: remember to honor dates of remembrance with sensitivity on Twitter and Facebook — we are still seeing embarrassing social media gaffes in 2013 — and suspend auto-updates (for example, if you are scheduling updates on Hoot Suite) during times of crisis or tragedy. Also be sure you are not posting identical updates on Twitter and Facebook. Those are very different platforms that require different approaches.

There are many tools on this blog to help you develop an editorial calendar of content for 2014. Hopefully, some of these 2014 dates will be relevant for your company or organization. Need a hand? If you would like me to help you with your social media marketing efforts and planning for the new year, contact me. I’d be happy to assist.

Today is Veterans Day (thank you, Veterans!) and many of you are off work. If you have some downtime, you may want to take a look at these editorial calendar tips, as you start to gear up your marketing, PR and social media plans for 2014. These are easy approaches that anyone can do.

A social media editorial calendar can help you organize your content marketing efforts.

In this Social Media Week DC presentation, Mary Fletcher Jones of Fletcher Prince ‪http://www.FletcherPrince.com‬ will talk about the advantages of creating a social media editorial calendar for your business, agency, or nonprofit organization.

Mary will suggest practical tips for selecting a format and creating an editorial calendar that is right for your goals and work style. She also provides advice on scheduling and frequency for various social media channels.

I’ve asked some of my favorite bloggers to guest blog and provide us with some of their favorite creative and affordable marketing tips.

Check out what Karen Hendricks has to say about making the most of your social media platforms.

Spring cleaning isn’t limited to dust bunnies under the bed. Did you know… you may have virtual dust bunnies lurking in your social media and marketing accounts? This is the perfect time of year to freshen up your marketing strategy, evaluate and consider adding a few new marketing tools—all with a budget-friendly approach. Here are five ways to put a little springtime sparkle into your marketing mix:

1. Facebook Facelift: Give your business or organization a fresh look on Facebook by uploading a new top image. This is a great rule of thumb to follow at least once per quarter or season. This instantly sets the tone on your account as a current, relevant source of information. According to a study by Vocus, Facebook fans are a brand’s most valuable customers, with 79% of your fans more likely to purchase your products/services as compared to non-Facebook fans… so give them a fresh “face” atop your latest content. Remember the dimensions for Facebook’s cover image are 851 x 315 pixels.

2. Blogging Bling: When is the last time you updated your company’s or organization’s blog? According to Blogging.org, 60% of all businesses have a blog, but a whopping 65% haven’t updated it within the past year. A blog is the perfect example of content marketing at its best—especially if you take advantage of a free, easy-as-pie WordPress account. The only investment is your time spent writing and adding effective images—a key component to higher engagement rates.

3. LinkedIn Luster: It’s been about a year and a half since the professional networking site LinkedIn unveiled its Company Pages feature. Since then, 2.6 million companies have developed company pages, including all Fortune 500 companies. Many small businesses and non-profits have yet to take advantage of this free marketing tool, with valuable access to the 200 million professionals currently on LinkedIn. When you create a Company Page, invite your customers to provide endorsements, share your business news, and begin creating a buzz on a professional level. You can even advertise jobs or scout for potential new hires. For inspiration, check this post on the LinkedIn blog, with tips from the top 10 best company pages of 2012.

4. Add Polish with Pinterest: Last summer, Mashable reported that Pinterest users were following more brands than Facebook or Twitter users. I think the main reason why boils down to Pinterest’s focus on images. It’s easier to “see” what you like rather than “read” about your favorite brands, causes or businesses. If you haven’t yet created a Pinterest account for your business or organization—or if you haven’t added new content recently, polish your image with a free Pinterest account. Make sure plenty of your pins link back to your core marketing presence, your website, to ultimately drive traffic to your doorstep.

5. Add email marketing muscle: Don’t discount good old fashioned email marketing! It’s still a wonderfully viable way to engage with and grow your core customer base. See the Inbound Marketing blog for their recent “23 Tweetable Stats on Email Marketing Trends” and it’s bound to put some spring into your marketing step.

If you aren’t currently using an email marketing service, consider the following: one of the gold standards in the industry, Constant Contact offers a free 60-day trial period that’s especially helpful for small businesses since the initial free contact list is limited to 100 or fewer contacts. Otherwise, paid accounts on Constant Contact will not break your bottom line, and non-profits receive a 15% discount Additional budget-friendly options include Vertical Response, which has a free option for all 501 (c)(3) organizations, and Mad Mimi which offers a free base email program for up to 2,500 contacts and up to 12,500 emails per month. Make sure to dust off your writing skills as well — 64% of email recipients say they open an email because of the subject line.

Discovered this terrific Slideshare presentation from local social media expert, Debbie Friez, Vice President of Major Accounts at BurrellesLuce. She offers terrific tips for getting the most out of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Check it out!

Snow day! If you’re anywhere in the Washington, DC area, you’re probably snowed in today. Maybe you’re still in your pajamas, drinking hot chocolate, and catching up on emails and blog posts.

You have my permission to be lazy all day if you want to. I am sure you deserve some down time. But if you find yourself catching cabin fever, here are some fun and constructive ways to employ your time. Some of them areeven quasi-related to marketing and PR 🙂

1. Just stay home. It’s not really safe to go out, so if you don’t have to… When you drive on roads before they’re plowed, they get packed down and icy. That’s not good. Here are some ideas to work off all that nervous energy from Fairfax County

2. Learn how to get started with podcasting. Watch Ray’s Social Media Week DC session .

Like this:

Today, at Social Media Week DC, the Case Foundation presented a session, “It’s Time to Be Fearless in Social Media.” The moderator, Michael Smith, did a fantastic job of presenting examples of fearless organizations, innovators, and creative talents.

He posed a question to the attendees. He asked something along the lines of “Who here is fearless in their communications?”

My hand shot up. It was a lonely hand, maybe the only one in the room. I looked around, abashed. Could it be that other people did not think of themselves as fearless communicators? Am I overly cocky to think of myself that way?

Maybe a lot more hands would have gone up if the question were phrased like this: “Who here feels the fear but does it anyway?”

I’m not saying I am braver than these people. I am scared of plenty of things. But the truth is, people who know me well and describe me on LinkedIn say I am a fearless communicator, also passionate and creative. It doesn’t mean I am the best communicator there is. That is just how I was described, and I own it. It wasn’t an idea I formed about myself. But it was a realization I came to accept about myself after reading those testimonials. And I know why people perceive me that way. I have been challenged by life, again and again, and have had to become resilient, just to survive. I’ve had failures, and I’ve come back from them. With that resilience, over time, I have become more comfortable with risk than some, and I have a perspective that would not occur to everyone. Because not everyone has had my tough luck! But more about that later…

The Case Foundation is launching a three-year “Be Fearless” campaign to motivate nonprofit organizations working for social causes to take more risks and tackle bigger challenges, for bigger payoffs.

The 5 Things It Takes To Be Fearless

The Foundation identified five principles associated with fearless and inspirational innovators and game-changers, like President Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, J.K. Rowling, Gandhi, and other public figures…

They make big bets and make history. Fearless people set big goals. They have big dreams.

They experiment early and often. Fearless people are not afraid to be first.

They make failure matter. They learn from their failures, and wear them as badges of honor.

They reach beyond their bubble. Fearless people develop partnerships with new and diverse groups and people to accomplish their goals. They don’t stay with the comfortable same set.

They let urgency conquer fear. Fearless people are decisive, are not hesitant, and don’t overthink every move. They have a sense of urgency about their causes and want to be a part of the solution, now.

Why Aren’t More People Fearless?

I thought about the possible reasons why most of the attendees did not consider themselves fearless, and even why the panelists, who were demonstrably able communicators, seemed unable to summon professional experiences that involved compelling risks, big dreams, spectacular fails, out-of-the box partnerships, and the kind of urgency associated with must-act-now causes. They had interesting stories, and communications best practices to share, they just weren’t “fearless” stories, at least by the Case Foundation criteria.

As I mentioned, fearlessness — it’s not really the absence of fear, although that is technically what it means! It wouldn’t be mature not to feel some fear. Fear is a good thing, in some situations. Fearlessness in this context, I think, is synonymous with courage. Courage involves being aware of the risks and feeling the fear, but not being ruled by it to the point where you do not take a needed action. It means taking all that into account. Having no fear is just denying risks, which is reckless and foolhardy. Fearlessness, or courage, is responsible.

Can You Make Yourself Fearless?

I pondered that fearlessness, in the way I think they are trying to promote it as a desirable attribute in communicators and organizations, is a quality that can be cultivated, just like creativity. I talked about how to enhance your creativity during my blogging session on Tuesday, and how that improved creativity will carry over into your professional work. And during this “Fearless” session today, several ideas occurred to me that might help a communicator flex and build their “fearlessness” muscles. Each everyday act of fearlessness emboldens you. I believe it can carry over into your work. Here are a few examples…

Cultivate generosity to yourself and to others. When you make sure your needs are met, you will have energy to give to others. You are creating a foundation of stability in yourself that allows you to reach out and give your best, when called to do so. Generosity is a strong and even brave act, when it is properly motivated and executed. Sometimes you can be fearless on behalf of someone else, more than yourself. For example, I find it easier (but still difficult) to advocate for my child in school, than to advocate for myself, sometimes. But becoming his strong and persistent advocate has, over time, made me a stronger advocate for myself than I was before he was born. Not all fearless people are generous people, but all generous people are fearless people.

When an opportunity to do good comes across your path, do good. You don’t let a lost child cry in Target without staying with them until his or her mom shows up. You don’t let a homeless person look for the dinner in a trash can if you have some way of feeding him or her. You don’t look the other way when you see a lost dog. You talk to a very old person in the grocery store line. This won’t happen to you with every poor soul you see that needs help. But you know it when it happens — that little prickle you get that says, it’s your time now: you can do something about this. Usually, it’s small, short-term, and almost always anonymous, right? Hold the elevator. Pick up a piece of litter. Smile at someone. Pitch in and help the committee. Help put away chairs after the meeting. Give blood. Leave a crazy big tip for someone who is working really hard. If you walk away from a situation you come across and you think, I wonder if I should have stopped and… STOP. And turn around, run back, and do whatever you were just called to do. That is your soul talking to you. Your soul is what enables you to be fearless, so don’t ignore it too frequently. Being a good person isn’t someone who thinks good thoughts. It’s someone who does good deeds.

Be your own biggest fan. Most of us, self included, are too hard on ourselves. Overly self-critical. So, it’s not a bad thing to be conscientious and to want to do better. But, do you keep track of the times people say you’re great? When I was at the Red Cross, I kept a binder that contained every thank you letter, thank you email, and compliment I received. I called it my Kudos binder. I kept another binder with examples of my best work. Right on my desk. NO ONE thought this was egotistical. It was helpful during performance evaluations and my exit interview. HR loved it. If you don’t know your own value, how can you expect other people to know it and appreciate it? So, chronicle your wins, and review them as much as you want. It’s proof positive that you can do whatever you set your mind to, which helps make you fearless.

Cheer on others. You can do this, if you can be your biggest fan, you know how to help others do their best. You can let it be about them, because you are strong in yourself.

When you think you can’t do it, remember the times when you overcame obstacles. I have this thing I say to myself: is this harder than waiting tables at the 3rd Street Diner or Joe’s Inn? Those were tough jobs. Almost nothing I have done is more physically demanding or exhausting than waiting tables when I was working my way through college — except, parenting of course. Nothing tops parenting for sheer exhaustion. If you can handle serving at the 3rd Street Diner, though, there’s not a whole lot life can dish out that you can’t tackle. What’s your 3rd Street Diner?

Be strong in your character, even when it doesn’t matter. For example, I teach my son not to cross against the light. And I don’t cross against the light, even if I’m not with him. Even if I’m the only one on the curb. I think about how my actions impact others, even in small ways. I know jay walking makes it hard on drivers. So, I can deal with standing on the sidewalk a few more seconds until the walk light comes on, even when all the other pedestrian Washingtonians are venturing into traffic 🙂 Even when my boyfriend crosses without me. I stick to my guns. Think it doesn’t matter? It does, really. The small stuff matters. Erode away too many small things and then it get easier to cheat on the big stuff. Obeying your principles and rules, not just when someone is looking, is a character-builder. And when you have a strong character, it’s easier to be fearless.

Honor your word, especially to those younger, weaker, or more vulnerable than you. When I make my son a promise, I stick to it. Sometimes, it becomes inconvenient. Sometimes, maybe it doesn’t seem that important. Well, it is. That is my problem, not his. Have I been tempted to make excuses and get out of it? Yes, but I don’t. If I want to raise a child with good character, he has to see that when I say something, I mean it, and when I promise something, I will do it, to the best of my ability. Children understand actions better than words. We all do. When you know you are a person who stands by your word, you learn to trust yourself enough to be fearless when it counts.

Be fiercely beautiful. Beyonce created this persona for herself called Sasha Fierce, a strong woman to be reckoned with. I think about that sometimes. I am not the most confident person in the world. Sometimes, I feel VERY shy. At those times, I sometimes self-talk to myself. As I walk into a room, I say “Work it, own it!” That is from the movie, Pretty Woman. Remember that? Kit is encouraging Vivian as she approaches her next john. It’s kind of a silly thing to make me feel braver, but it works.

So, allow yourself to be as beautiful, and by that, I don’t mean, a model. I mean inside, and creative, and as fierce as you dare. Wear a red dress instead of a little black dress. Smile, big. Give yourself flowers. Sparkle when you walk into a room. Light it up like a Christmas tree. Appreciate how magic you are, just because of all the completely ordinary but divine things you can do. When you realize, just by being human, that you are pretty darn special, then you can be fearless and open to all kinds of possibilities. But girl, you got to own it.

Let the waiter decide. You know, it takes courage to give up control, and be in the moment, and just accept what life gives you and see the good in it. So, the next time you go to a restaurant, just order the special, whatever it is, no substitutions. Or let the waiter or your date or your child decide what you eat, or where you go on vacation for a week. Let the interns handle the project. Give the hair stylist carte blanche. And no arguments, amendments, or complaints! Just give up control and enjoy what you are given, as much as you can, in the moment that presents itself, even if you are given knowledge about something you now know you don’t like. You’ll come to appreciate even this small act of resilience.

Tell the truth, even if it makes you uncomfortable, sometimes. As a communicator, it’s our mandate to say when the emperor is wearing no clothes. It’s not our mandate to make our clients feel good about themselves. We can do that after we accomplish our objectives. I do try to be tactful, most of the time, but if I have to be blunt because a client is not moving forward, and I know it is in his or her best interests, I will be. I told a client once that her website looked like a yard sale, and she needed to focus her resources on improving it. It is better if they hear it from me than lose another contract or sale because of something that can be fixed, like a messy website. I am not honest with them because it is in MY best interests; I have LOST clients this way. But I know they don’t pay me to tell them what they want to hear, or already know, and the ones who stick with me are the ones I work my heart out for.

Embrace your uniqueness. Stop trying to be everybody’s friend, stop trying to please everyone, stop trying to be one-size-fits-all. You can’t. Laser focus on your goals and what you can make happen.

Connect with different kinds of people. Don’t just work with, network with, learn from, or be friends with people who are your same age, color, ethnicity, religion, professional level, educational background, or economic background. That’s a very human tendency — to flock with birds of your own feather. If all the people you know are just like you, you may be playing it too safe. Too safe and fearless do not go together.

Have the courage of your convictions. Own your informed opinions. But you can only do this in good faith if you are also prepared to give credit where credit is due, and humbly accept and admit being wrong time to time, because no one is right all the time. It’s a relief, sometimes, to be wrong. And being able to say sorry and be forgiven with grace is a real gift.

Effort, effort, effort. Fearlessness is not just about attitude. It’s about seeing it through, to completion, and if that means digging ditches, you dig ditches. Don’t phone it in. If you’re presenting to people, wear your interview clothes. Show them how much you respect them and their time by putting your best foot forward. Make killer Powerpoint slides and handouts. Ask for help when you need it. When you do whatever it takes, and you succeed or make progress, you know you are a person who accomplishes things you set out to do, and does self-concept ever make you fearless!

Stop trying to be perfect. Forgive yourself for being imperfect. The one main thing that stops people I coach from blogging or taking on other communications projects, other than lack of time, is perfectionism. You can aim for excellence as long as you keep working toward your goals, but perfectionism tends to get in the way of results. Procrastination and perfectionism are linked. And if you don’t take actions, you can’t be fearless.

Learn to laugh at yourself. You know how you do that? You try and do things that make you feel foolish, and you don’t give up when you feel your cheeks turning red and hot. It’s hard and you feel silly when you first learn how to speak French, learn how to belly dance, or get up and sing Karaoke in a crowded bar (a whole song…by yourself…without drinking alcohol!). You’re always trying to improve right? But the dichotomy is you also have to cultivate some self-acceptance to get there.

I remember when Rollerblades first came out and I really wanted to learn how to roller blade. I took a class and I was, by a wide margin, the worst and most uncoordinated student in the class. But you can see the success in your failures. For example, I got really good at falling over, in my protective gear (I wore more protective gear than anyone else). Falling well is important. It keeps you from having a serious injury. By the end of the class, I was given the dubious award of “most-improved” which was a nice way of saying, you’re still the worst but you have come a LONG way. And you know, with practice, I got really good at rollerblading! I could do it for miles and miles. But I could do it because I could laugh at myself when I fell down, and I could really appreciate my “most improved” award. It made me fearless on the W&OD Trail, later! Of course, that physical confidence I obtained carried over into other areas of my life.

When you can take things on with that kind of spirit, when you learn that failure is just a step, and sometimes a fun step, to becoming a better person, and that you don’t necessarily have to be the best or greatest at every single thing you take on, in order to enjoy it and benefit from it, then failure loses some of its power to make you afraid.

What do you do to cultivate your personal fearlessness? Has it carried over into your professional work?

I attended my first Social Media Week DC event this morning and it was very well done. Synaptic Digital presented a panel of four experts at the National Press Club who spoke on various aspects of media relations, one of whom was their engaging Media Relations VP, Laura Pair.

With ten years of media relations experience (in addition to other career experience), Laura shared ten lessons learned about media relations.

Her first point was that media relations professionals serve as a bridge connecting the needs of two “masters:” their clients and journalists. “We need to help [clients] craft their message and we need to craft the message to suit the media,” Laura stated.

In her second point, she mentioned that it was the media relations professional’s job to help the client define their goals:

Who is your target audience?

What is the crux of your messsage?

What do you want people to do?

The third lesson she cited was the importance of consuming the media you are pitching. With online access these days, there is no excuse, says Laura, to not thoroughly examine tv and radio broadcasts, and newspapers before you pitch them, where ever they may be located. “You can go online and watch the clips from a station in Alabama.” There are several good media relations reasons for this approach

Helps you think like the journalist

Lets you see how much time was devoted to the topic in the broadcasts

Understand the weight given to the topic by the journalist

Observe how the stories about that topic are handled and “teased.”

“What’s the headline and the subheads?” said Laura. “Once you know how they are teasing the audience, you know how to pitch them; you can mimic it.”

“Less is more” was the pithy lesson #4. A good media pitch should be no more than two-three sentences long. Craft the email subject line like an attention-grabbing headline.

When pitching on the phone, keep the voice mail message very short. “If they are interested, they’ll contact you for more.”

It’s important to learn everything you can online before you pitch — the lesson #5. “Look up everything for the topic you are pitching, especially if you are a freelancer,” said Laura, as freelancers may not be as knowledgeable about the topic as agency staff or corporate communications departments.

Also, research the journalist online before you pitch him or her. Look at previously written articles and Twitter profiles. You will be able to learn how they approach certain stories and how they have covered angles in the past.

Lessson #6 was about making full use of multimedia. TV media needs video, radio needs audio, and print media needs images. Really, all media need video, even if they do not incorporate it in their stories. Laura urged the audience to ask their clients for all the multimedia assets they can find before pitching the media.

One idea is to have the client produce a 1-2 minute video — not b-roll — that promotes the idea of the story to be told. Laura said this was an especially good asset to provide to bloggers but that all journalists would find it useful as background information. She also mentioned that b-roll was a good asset to provide to TV stations, as well.

Journalists are not the only conduit for your pitch and lesson #8 was about taking your client’s story directly to the audience. For example, said Laura, if you are doing a broadcast interview, it shouldn’t be too hard to convince your spokesperson to also do a Facebook chat, Google + Hangout, or Twitter chat. “Don’t just do one-off interviews; put your spokesperson on social media.”

Not all stories will be picked up by the national media, but local placements can make a big impact, too. Lesson #9 was about remembering to find the local angles of your story. “Journalists in local markets have an obligation to provide information about their community,” said Laura.

One tactic is to obtain local data (e.g., from a government source) and provide that to a reporter, such as “how many people are unemployed in Cleveland.” Laura emphasized how journalists rely on media relations professionals to provide this type of useful information.

In her final point, for lesson #10, Laura said that remember you are pitching to a human being. Above all, be nice! Respect the reporter’s time and keep your pitches short and to the point. Learn their deadlines and get to know them. Always keep in mind that the media is your “other client.”

Laura’s presentation was very useful to me and the audience was clearly appreciative of her tips and anecdotes. Watching the presentation was a great way to start Social Media Week DC.